KPMG has added extended holiday purchase and iPad2s to its flexible benefits plan, and lowered its CO2 emissions through a salary sacrifice car scheme.

During its annual flex enrolment in December 2011, the firm extended its holiday purchase from 10 to 15 days so its 12,000 UK employees can take extra time off during the Olympic and Paralympic Games if they wish. Margaret Woolcott, employee benefits manager at KPMG, said: “A lot of staff have elected to benefit from that additional holiday.”

The firm has added the opportunity for staff to purchase an iPad2 from net salary, spreading the cost over 24 months through a hire agreement. During the enrolment period, 435 staff opted to take up an iPad2 through the scheme, which is provided by Vodafone.

Since the firm added new salary sacrifice car scheme to flex in August 2011, 300 cars have been delivered and 300 are on order. Kathryn Batchelor, fleet manager at KPMG, said: “We had anticipated doing 500 cars in the first year, but it has already been blown out of the water after six months.”

The CarFlex scheme, provided by Hitachi Capital, is open to staff year round. It has two strands: an all-employee scheme and a manager scheme. The all-employee scheme was rolled out to all staff, while the manager scheme was offered to a population of 4,500 staff within the firm’s A to C (director, senior manager and manager) bandings.

The car scheme includes the lease cost of the car, maintenance and services, driver insurance, and accident management.

The all-employee scheme has a carbon dioxide (CO2) cap of 140g/km. The manager scheme has no CO2 cap, but there is an extra charge for cars with a CO2 of 160g/km. Batchelor added: “The lower CO2-emitting car and the cheaper the car, the better the tax position will be. We are actively promoting cleaner travel and greener choices. We have seen a drop in our average CO2s across the whole fleet to about 124g/km.”